The Armor Wars
by AzureSpider
Summary: What if Tony Stark's technology had eventually been mass-produced? What if by the time of the Human-Covenant War the UNSC soldiers had access to Iron Man armor? How would the war be different? What of our SPARTANS? Read on and see.
1. Chapter 1

The Armor Wars

Deep Space, 2540s, the Human-Covenant War

"How am I doing Cortana?"

The voice of John's sassy smart-AI came on as he continued his flight path following rocketing through another Banshee and completely destroying the vehicle.

"Your suit is still at 91% power Chief" Cortana replied. John smiled under his helmet. That was a good sign. He'd already torn through a fleets worth of Covenant ships, and still had so much power to spare. At this rate, the whole Covenant would be gone before his power levels dropped below 80.

"Thank you Cortana." John replied before adding: "Just don't call me Chief from now on. Its just John"

"Very well _John_" Cortana responded with just a touch of playfulness.

John continued on his flight path past a couple of seraphs, putting an extra oomph into his rocket boots so he could blast forward at a higher speed. He spiraled as he flew, dodging the incoming fire from a nearby banshee that was getting bold. Using some deft maneuvering, John continued to dodge the Banshee's barrage, and wound up causing the ship to shoot one of its own in its pursuit of the Iron Man. Eventually, John grew tired of playing evasive, and suddenly flew downward, catching the Banshee off guard. By the time it went down after him, John had already used his rocket-boots superior speed to fly up and behind the Banshee and blasted at it with a high-powered repulsor blast. The blast destroyed one of the Banshee's wings and the vehicle lost balance. As it attempted to do an evasive maneuver, John fired another repulsor blast, and upon being hit by it, the damaged Banshee went plummeting before exploding in a blue fireball that the airless vacuum of space quickly smothered.

John smirked underneath his helmet as a female figure flew up beside him. She was wearing armor similar to his only with a color scheme of light blue and dark blue as opposed to his green and gray. He recognized it anywhere.

"Nice job John. You destroyed one Banshee. Just four and a half million to go!"

"Very funny Kelly. You just remember to watch your flank"

Kelly said nothing in response as she spun around and blasted a pair of banshees to pieces at the same time with two simultaneous repulsor blasts. In another rapid motion courtesy of her rocket boots, Kelly flew past John and destroyed a third Banshee that had been flying towards him.

"I'm sorry, John you were saying?" she asked with a tone that betrayed the playfulness of her words.

"I'm impressed, I am." He said. "I'm just giving you friendly advice."

"Yeah, yeah. That's what your best at, fearless leader. Now come on, the Sabres and Orbital-Drop War Machines can handle these clowns. We actually have a mission here remember?"

"Yes, yes, I remember. Lead on."

Needing no other kind of invitation, Kelly nodded and blasted forward on her rocket boots, and John followed suit, both of them blasting more Banshees and even the occasional Seraph to pieces on their way to the Covenant mother ship that was their target. All the while, John relished using his armor, and the ease with which it destroyed any Covenant fighter that came his way. And to think it all came from such humble beginnings too…well, a billionaire playboy superhero whose exploits were still talked about in history classes when John was a kid might not exactly qualify as "humble" but it was still amazing to John how far the legendary "Iron Man" armor had come since then, now both heavily upgraded and perfectly married with the UNSC's MJOLNIR armor to create the ultimate battle-suits. The ones worn by John and Kelly had the flight, maneuverability, and fancy toys like Repulsor Blasts and Uni-Beams that the Iron Man had made famous, but also the enhanced strength, durability, and protection of the MJOLNIR armor.

John and Kelly continued their flight, finally arriving at the mother-ship, which promptly greeted the two armored soldiers with a hail of plasma fire from its AA turrets mounted on the sides and bottom of the vessel. John and Kelly narrowly dodged the assault, and using his helmet's hi-tech HUD and analyzing systems, John pin-pointed a weak point in the mother-ship's hull, and ordered Kelly to direct her rockets at it. Kelly did as she was told, and John followed suit. The effect of the hailstorm of rockets hitting the side of the mother ship was nothing short of spectacular. The whole side lit up in orange fire before the flames disappeared as quickly as they had been ignited.

With an entrance now made for them, John and Kelly flew upwards, closer towards the mother-ship, dodging the plasma fire that kept coming their way. Finally, they reached their entrance, when a couple of Seraph fighters came up from behind. John and Kelly turned to confront the Seraphs only to watch as the vessels were blown away by a relentless volley of rockets and repulsor blasts from above.

John and Kelly looked up to see two more Iron Men flying towards them. One's armor was greatly reminiscent of the last known suit of Iron Man armor worn by Tony Stark, only with a different color-scheme and better weapons. The others was a more bulky suit of armor that better fit his massive build.

"Took you long enough" Kelly said.

"Sorry beautiful" The less bulky Iron Man replied. "Solomon here was a bit over-eager when it came to blowing Covvie ships to oblivion"

"I can't help but have some fun kicking ass" Solomon protested. John sighed.

"Well then come on you two, there's still a lot more Covvies to blow away. The clock's ticking and we still haven't completed our primary objective…"

"Always such a serious way of talking." the less bulky Iron Man, Fred, replied. "All right, let's move in."

John nodded, and flew towards the ship, followed swiftly by Kelly, Fred, and Solomon. The latter two unleashed a few more rockets to soften up the Covenant ground resistance within and then all four Iron Men landed, activating a temporary bubble shield as John gave out orders:

"All right: everyone enter ground-assault mode"

"Roger" was the unanimous response from the others, and with the touch of a button, all four's armor's changed before the confused and panicking Covenant alien's eyes, with their Uni-Beam's power being expended, not as a powerful blast of energy but instead full-body energy shields and overshields. As this was happening, all four Iron Men also drew their respective UNSC armaments as their HUD's took to analyzing each of the Covenant alien's stats, physical attributes, weapons, and their body's vital weaknesses.

"All right…" John said. "Let's sprint this. Don't fall behind."

"Roger!"

The Covenant aliens all produced their respective arms and pointed them at the four Iron Men just as the bubble-shield faded…

"GO!"

The four ran forward, gunning down any and all Covenant aliens in their way. A mix of proper military training, experience, and their suit's analyzing capabilities ensured that the four Iron Men always hit their enemies vital areas, which ensured that nearly every one of their shots was a kill. The only real problem was the sheer amount of resistance they were confronted with. The four Iron Men had the superior technology, but the Covenant still had better conventional arms as well as numbers. Even with both energy shields, and overshields, the four were still hard-pressed to weather a relentless assault of plasma fire and needle rounds. In spite of this though, they pressed on, cutting down more and more Covenant, until they at last closed in on their objective…

But then the ship's commander began to de-attach entire parts of the ship. This, however did not slow down the four. They simply re-activated their armor's jet boots and flew through the space and floating ship parts that now blocked their path. Finally, the four arrived at their target, and sped forward towards the package they had been sent to retrieve.

They all landed, and entered the room where the good doctor lay sleeping in a cryo-tube. John walked up to it and accessed the controls, opening the cryo-tube that contained Dr. Catherine Halsey, the ONI scientist responsible for upgrading the Iron Man/MJOLNIR armor, leading to the suits John and his team now wore. Once the cryo-tube door opened with a hiss, it did not take long for Halsey to regain consciousness and step out.

"Hello John. Kelly, Fred, Solomon. Good to see that you're all still here in one piece."

"Likewise. Sleep well?"

"No thanks to their driving yes. I don't suppose you have a plan for getting us out of here?"

"There are ships in the hangar. I'll escort you to one, then when we fly out of here. The others will provide covering fire in space."

"Sounds good to me. Let's move"

But as the group was exiting, they were confronted by a most unhappy looking Elite Major, who held an Energy Sword in hand, eager for blood. Solomon, using the machine-gun built into his wrist-armor, opened fire on the Elite only for it to block the barrage with its energy sword. Finally, Solomon gave up and lowered his arm. The Elite growled, and readied his energy sword.

"We could just shoot this bastard with a repulsor blast…" Kelly pointed out. "...or a rocket or two"

"What, and deny the split-chin his final fight? The one he's probably been dying for? Even _I_ would be ashamed of you if you did _that_…"

"Very funny Fred." John replied in a sarcastic deadpan. "No, I'm dealing with him in the practical way…"

But before John could fire his repulsor blasts or rockets, the Elite lunged at him, furiously embedding his Energy Sword into John's armor, the plasma blade going through the chest piece like butter as Cortana's voice came on: "WARNING: Chest piece compromised, power levels at 25% and falling…"

"SHIT!" John shouted, trying to force the Elite off of him before the alien completely ran him through with his energy sword…

Fred moved in and jammed one of his signature combat knives into the alien's neck. The Elite howled in pain before Kelly drew her shotgun and blasted away at the Elite at point-blank range, knocking him to the ground and killing him instantly.

"Ah, we make such a good team…" Fred said fondly as he looked at Kelly. John, meanwhile staggered, struggling to stay standing.

"Are you OK?" Halsey asked as she placed an arm around him.

"Yeah…armor's toast but the sword didn't go too deep past that. A little bio-foam over the laceration and I'll be fine…"

"All right then. Let's get to the hangar and get out of here"

And so the group raced towards the hangar, and as Halsey and John loaded onto one of the Covenant ships and took off, Fred, Kelly, and Solomon activated their rocket boots and took off right behind. They didn't have to fight off the pursuing Covenant forces long before a massive UNSC ship uncloaked before them and helped to destroy the last of the Seraphs that were chasing them.

"Welcome back Iron Men…" The captain said over the comm. channel…

John smiled satisfyingly underneath his helmet. Another successful mission. And due in large part to the versatility and power of their suits. Coupled with their good training, it wasn't very surprising that they had been so regularly successful against the Covenant. The bastards still had a strong-foothold, and worlds had still been left glassed, battles and lives lost in almost equal amount, but at least there were some successes to be had. And a small part of John couldn't help but feel that it could have been a lot worse, imagining for a brief second, as he had before in his nightmares, a Human-Covenant war in which they didn't have Tony Stark's technology to aid them…

When the group finally boarded the vessel, John staggered off to the med-bay with Dr. Halsey at his side. As he looked over his shoulder, he could see Fred and Kelly with their helmets off, sharing a kiss with one another. John smiled. He had always seen how close Fred and Kelly had been. Her relationship with John had not quite developed to the degree that was needed, so she found happiness with Fred instead. They were the big couple on the squad, even though the brass did have oft-ignored rules against military fraternization. But Kelly for one was never much of a by-the-book kind of soldier. And Fred was little better.

And as John finally arrived in the med-bay, he was thankful that they could be together, maybe, in the midst of this, and that there was some hope for humanity in this bloody war…

And all thanks to a man named Tony Stark.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Yet another one-shot I am expanding on by popular demand. Enjoy.**

Unidentified Planet-2540s. The Human-Covenant War.

The team of three Orbital Drop War Machines and one Iron Man were camped out on a cliff face overlooking the forest of the planet they had landed on and in the distance, the ruins that had been taken by the Covenant. Any minute now, a prophet would be landing, and the team was to…remove him from the equation. If it worked, it would stop the Covenant trade routes in the entire sector. Of course even with the group's combined firepower, a direct assault would be risky, if not suicidal. No, it was much safer to take the shot from a distance.

It was the Iron Man who was taking said shot, much to the chagrin of one of the ODWMs, O'brien. He was young, short in stature (especially by ODWM standards) and was a bit of an egotist. And with an Iron Man doing his job instead of him, his pride was wounded.

His sergeant broke the silence.

"The shuttle will be touching down in two minutes."

O'brien pitched in venomously: "After all of this, that Iron Man had better be everything they said he was…"

"Ah give it a rest O'brien" Dutch remarked. "Before I point out again how he's saved your life twice now. Three times actually, now that I think about it."

"You just did!"

Dutch smiled underneath his helmet. "Sorry about that"

Meanwhile, the Iron Man sat ready, with the sniper rifle in hand and a cable attached to the back of the helmet, allowing the sniper rifle to interface with the helmet's targeting systems for maximum range, view, and accuracy. Eventually, the prophet's phantom began to descend on the far-off ruins. The Iron Man's helmet's advanced targeting system immediately got to work, it and the sniper rifle's own targeting capabilities working perfectly in unison to give the Iron Man the perfect shot. The Prophet didn't have a prayer.

But neither the Iron Man nor the ODWMs were aware of a large, angry presence making its way towards them with murder on its mind. It had already been beaten, humiliated, blinded in one eye, and sent hurtling over a waterfall by the accursed "Iron Man", who had also severely damaged its power armor with repulsor blasts on top of everything else. Now it absolutely wanted nothing more then to smash the Iron Man's armor to pieces with its Gravity Hammer and mount the metal demon's helmeted head on its Chopper.

But none of that was to be.

The Brute lunged at O'brien only to be met with a fatal rocket to its body from Dutch that killed it instantly.

"Holy shit, that was the Brute from before! Damn thing just doesn't let up…"

"Well, its dead now, that's for sure…"

"I'm just hoping that explosion didn't attract unwanted attention…"

A sniper shot rang out, immediately getting all of the ODWMs attention. Then a distinctly feminine voice rang out, catching the ODWMs off guard even more.

"It did. But I just took the shot, so we're in the clear. Now let's get out of here."

-X-

Following the success of their previous mission, the brass had decided to pair up the ODWMs and the Iron Man again, much to O'brien's annoyance. He didn't like Iron Man, or woman as it were, and was still irritated that she had not only taken his job from him but had proven to be just as good a shot as he was, if not better.

_No…_ O'brien thought vehemently. _She's __**not **__better then me. I don't care if she's an Iron Man, or Woman, or what. She is __**NOT **__better then me…_

"O'brien, move your ass!"

Shaken out of his angry musings, O'brien saw a fuel rod gun blast coming his way. Just barely moving out of the way in time, O'brien retaliated with wrist-mounted rockets that promptly decimated the grouping of Grunt heavies that included the one who had shot at him.

Plasma rifle fire came in from O'brien's left, prompting him to whip around and let loose with the shoulder-mounted mini-gun that more then anything else had made the ODWM armor and its original inspiration the stuff of legend. Packing almost as much power as the turrets mounted on warthogs, the latest version of this signature weapon fired a relentless hailstorm of machine-gun fire at the mess of Elites and Jackals, the bullets managing to rip through even the Jackal's energy shields, items specifically made to counter standard UNSC armaments. But of course, the ODWMs shoulder-mounted chain-gun wasn't exactly a standard armament. Soon, the whole battlefield was a Covenant graveyard, with only O'brien's team and the Iron Man left standing.

"Hey O'brien, be sure to always keep your head in the game. You know, so our Iron Man friend doesn't have to save your dumb ass again"

O'brien rolled his eyes behind his helmet. He was still sore about that too. Admittedly, he _was _thankful that she had saved his life, but he still didn't like having her around. He also found it annoying that the others insisted on calling her an Iron Man in spite of her true gender being revealed…

The group of four kept pushing through to the next firerfight sight, coming upon a pair of wraiths raining death down on the unfortunate UNSC marines with their mortar cannons.

Immediately getting to work, the ODWMs unleashed their rockets, quickly blowing both wraiths to pieces as the "Iron Lady" as O'brien thought of her swooped in on her rocket boots and finished the ground troops off.

As the last Jackal fell to a repulsor blast, the few surviving marines came out from behind cover.

"That was absolutely amazing! You ODWMs blasted those wraiths apart like it was nothing! I want me a suit like that!"

"Yeah, keep dreaming Logans" the Marine Sergeant said, shaking his head before saluting the Iron Lady.

"Sergeant Virginia Hogan of Dino company. Our boys have been hit pretty hard for the last few weeks, but now that you guys are here, I think its high time we turn the tide."

"What's the exact situation sergeant?"

"The Covenant have an encampment nestled at the top of a very tall hill. Up until this point, trying an attack would be suicide, even when we were at full strength. But now that you're here, I'm thinking the odds have improved in our favor."

The Iron Lady nodded. "Understood. The ODWMs and I will lead the initial charge and take out their heavy artillery and draw their fire. While that's happening, you can re-organize your company and start making your way up the hill"

The Marine sergeant saluted. "Yes ma'am. Don't worry. Dino company hasn't keeled over in this war and yet and we don't plan to now. Save some of the covvies for us will you?"

The Iron Lady nodded simply and turned to the ODWMs.

"I take it you got all of that sergeant?"

Cortez nodded.

"Crystal ma'am. Me and my boys are ready when you are"

"Yeah," O'brien mumbled bitterly. "Another chance for the "Iron Lady" to play hero"

"Oh shut up O'brien. And try and smile for once. I swear it only hurts a little"

O'brien gave Dutch a look that could shatter windows, but Dutch didn't see it because of his helmet.

With their orders given, the ODWMs moved out right behind their fearless leader. Taking to the air with their rocket boots, the four flew up and towards the Covenant fortification on the hill. Wasting no time, the four let loose with a relentless torrent of repulsor blasts, rockets, bullets, and even a grenade or two, taking care to target any turrets of any kind and then moving on to the Elites once all the turrets were piles of smoking scrap metal. And with their flight speed, the Covenant forces were hard-pressed to shoot them down.

Down below, Sergeant Hogan gave the orders to her men: "That's our cue, move in Dino Company, wipe these bastards clean off the planet!"

As Dino Company raced up the hill, the remaining force of Elites, Grunts, and Jackal snipers were completely unaware of their presence until they were right on top of them, finishing those that remained.

As they did however, a swarm of Drones flew in, obscuring the Iron Lady and the ODWMs vision and ruining their flight paths. The ODWMs let loose with their shoulder mounted turrets but only managed to cut some of the Drones down. Others continued to fly around unhinged, latching on to the four's armor and trying to tear it apart without success. But some Drones managed to rip off Dutch's machine gun turret.

"Oh, so that's how its gonna be eh buggers? How about this?"

Dutch let loose with a wrist-mounted flamethrower, incinerating most of the Drones surrounding him and sending the others flying away aflame, who didn't get far before plummeting to the ground as charred husks.

O'brien looked on in silent awe. When some Drones came after him, he gave them a similar treatment but didn't quite hit as many as Dutch. Looking over his shoulder, he could see the Iron Lady killing some more Drones, but also saw a pair of Hunters down on the ground taking aim.

"Look out!" O'brien instinctively shouted.

The Iron Lady whipped around to face him. Cursing under his breath, O'brien surged forward on his rocket boots and unloaded his entire supply of rockets down at where the Hunters where. When the dust settled it was as if the Hunters had never even been there, save for a few small puddles of an orange liquid-like substance.

The Iron Lady turned to face him.

"Thanks O'brien"

O'brien found himself taken off guard for a moment. _He_ had just saved _her _instead of the other way around, and she had thanked him for it…he wasn't sure how to respond. Finally though, he went with his gut.

"Uh…your welcome…"

"Come on, everything's taken care of here, let's go meet back up with Dino Company."

"Right…"

And with that, the two flew back to the once Covenant now UNSC camp at the top of the hill, O'brien still thinking about how he had possibly saved the Iron Lady's life.

_Well I guess now its 3-1. Looks like I'm gonna have to save her two more times if I want us to be even. Great._

**Author's Note: And there we go! How was that? I'm kind of impressed at how popular the first one was, so thanks to everyone for that, and I hope you all enjoyed this one as well. And as to whether or not I will do a part III the answer is: not for a while. I've got other projects I've got on my schedule. Mass Effect namely. But thanks again for all the positive feed-back to my stuff. Hope it continues! **


End file.
